Ethnic Slurs Aimed at Inouye Sent to Senate Offices, Rudman Alleges

WASHINGTON —  Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) said Tuesday that his office and the Senate committee investigating the Iran- contra affair had received “ugly ethnic slurs against our chairman,” Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), a Japanese-American.

A spokesman for Rudman said the senator’s office had received between 15 and 20 telegrams, letters or telephone calls in the last few days containing racial slurs referring to Inouye. One telegram said: “You and your Jap chairman are a disgrace to our country.”

Inouye, a highly decorated World War II veteran, won America’s second-highest award for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, and lost his right arm during combat. A spokesman for Inouye said the senator’s office had received “a handful of calls” Monday and Tuesday that were “racial in nature.”

The spokesman for Rudman said his office had tossed out most of the derogatory letters and telegrams it had received but recalled that many of them described Inouye as a “Jap” who was out to destroy the United States. Some asked Inouye to “go home to where he belongs,” the spokesman said.

Rudman’s office began receiving the comments July 7, the first day of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North’s testimony. Rudman pointed out that several of the members of the House and Senate investigating committees had been decorated for their combat duty, including himself, Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) and Reps. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) and Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.).